View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoNeal C. Lauron | DISPATCH PHOTOSElementary-school students rehearse for a performance at a West Side meetinghouse of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

One woman talked about reuniting with a daughter she hadn’t spoken to in years. Another choked
up while asking for prayers for a cancer-stricken brother-in-law. A man referred to Jesus as the
ultimate GPS, directing him on the roads of life.

They were speaking during a recent “fast and testimony” service of the Columbus Riverside Ward
congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also called the LDS or Mormon
church.

Church members are acutely aware that the presidential candidacy of fellow Mormon Mitt Romney
has placed their faith under a microscope, a fact that pundits have dubbed the “Mormon moment.”
Some LDS members view the candidacy as promoting acceptance of Mormonism, while others protest that
scrutiny focuses on the faith’s most obscure or arcane parts.

Julia Stokey of Hilliard, who converted to Mormonism three years ago, falls into the ranks of
believers who welcome the attention.

“I’m not ashamed of my faith. If anything, the presidential election has made me more proud,”
said Stokey, 44, a former Roman Catholic. “I’m glad it’s happening. The world needs to know more
about the LDS church.”

A majority of U.S. Mormons — 63 percent — think acceptance of the religion is growing, but just
28 percent think the faith is viewed as mainstream, according to a survey taken about a year ago by
the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Joseph Smith formed the church in 1830 in Fayette, N.Y. It was headquartered in Kirtland, Ohio,
from 1831 until 1838, when members began moving west to escape persecution. Today, there are four
LDS “stakes” in the Columbus area, each with about 10 congregations, called wards or branches. The
city also is home to one of the international church’s 139 operating temples.

The Association of Religious Data Archives counted about 13,000 adherents in the Columbus
metropolitan area in 2010.

Dr. D. Bradley Welling, who is president of the Columbus stake, is a professor and chairman of
the ear, nose and throat department at Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center. He cites
studies and statistics to tout the LDS faith as one that contributes to satisfaction in life,
higher rates of volunteerism and longer life expectancies.

“We accept truth from wherever it comes. We don’t claim to have a monopoly on the truth,” he
said. “When we find that there’s some discrepancy between religion and science, we accept that we
don’t have enough information yet.”

Welling attended last Sunday’s Riverside Ward service. Also there was lifelong Mormon Steve
Mangum, 57, of Upper Arlington, who said the presidential election has brought questions from
people who know he’s Mormon. Mangum, who is a professor and senior associate dean at OSU’s business
school, said he’ll probably vote for President Barack Obama because of his economic policy.

“I think it’s great to have a member of the church running for the presidency,” Mangum said of
Romney. “I respect him for doing so, just like I respect President Obama for dedicating his life to
public service.”

Romney will get the vote of convert Stokey, a process coach at the Boehringer Ingelheim
pharmaceutical company, but not simply because of his faith.

“I’m proud of him and what he’s doing for our church and our country,” she said. “Him being LDS
is just a bonus.”

Popular culture also is drawing attention to the LDS church. In recent years, the HBO series
Big Love focused on a fundamentalist Mormon family, and 2011 saw the Broadway musical
debut of
The Book of Mormon, a satirical depiction of LDS missionaries in Africa.

The church has changed its reaction to such representations. It issued lengthy statements
condemning
Big Love, but its response to
The Book of Mormon was a sentence that promoted the faith as one that brings people closer
to Jesus, said LDS member Jana Riess, a Cincinnati-based author and director of publishing at
Patheos Press.

She hopes the attention helps Mormons understand “that being in this culture is a great thing
and … not remaining within this enclave is a really good path for us.”

Darius Gray, a businessman and LDS member who co-authored a film about blacks in the church,
said the attention has revealed that people of all races, ethnicities and faiths are “in this boat
together.”

“I would hope that a greater understanding comes from this Mormon moment,” he said, “to find out
that these Latter-day Saints aren’t as weird as some might have thought.”